I’m thinking of doing a thing, and was hoping for some feedback (and maybe it’ll change my mind):
- How do you define bloat in a browser?
- What are some examples of it, and what browsers have it?
So far I’m thinking bloat includes…
- Extra software that typically is standalone, like an email client or RSS reader
- Things that are not widely wanted in a browser, and could be extensions, like an AI toolbar or a cryptocurrency wallet
- Advertisements built directly into the browser
Are PDF readers bloat?
How about LibreWolf’s uBlock Origin?
And why/why not?
I’ve got some of my own reasoning in the list above, but I’m interested in others’ thoughts.
When it comes to anything I like the whole add on idea and I think having default settings or add ons is fine. Its great though if a user can turn them off and anything changed should be preserved when upgrading. Bloat is only bloat when you can’t get rid of it. Its like linux distros. I use an out of the box distro some would call it bloat and prefer a leaner distro. I like it though and if it was the only option everything could be uninstalled. Like linux its that much better if there are multiple options to choose with different base defaults. bare bones, lean, regular, feature rich.